Re: Taken to the cleaners

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS -- "Relived of one's money or aspirations,
perhaps by flimflam; easily bested. The advent of professional dry
cleaners not so many decades ago brought about this modernization
of the earlier phrase 'cleaned out.' James H. Vaux, in his 'New
and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash (slang) Language'
defined the older phrase as follows: 'Said of a gambler who has
lost his stake at play; also of a flat (dupe) who has been stript
of all his money.'" From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers
(Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).